Feasts were given when a new baby was born because children were considered such a blessing. A child’s name was chosen from a group of names used only by the father’s clan.  Sometimes children weren’t named until they were older so that a name that matched their personality could be selected.       From a young age, children were taught the skills for living.  Girls learned to tend crops, to tan, prepare, and sew skins for clothing and blankets, and how to build shelters because those were the responsibilities of the women in the tribe.       When a boy was five or six he was given a bow and some arrows without sharp points. With these he learned to shoot at targets. Boys also learned to make their own bows and arrows and helped to hunt and fish. When a boy was older and killed his first deer, it was reason for great celebration, even though the custom was that he could not eat the meat of that deer himself.

     Both boys and girls were taught the customs and beliefs of their tribe by an older male or their father.  They learned how to fast and pray to the spirits, and how to behave toward parents, relatives and strangers.  At puberty, each followed special rituals after which they were considered adults of the tribe.
     In the north, Indians married very young.  Sometimes marriages were arranged by parents or relatives, but in our area, a man was free to choose his own wife.  He had to convince his family and the intended wife that he would be a suitable husband.  One night the man would take a piece of burning bark to the lodge of the woman.  If she blew it out, there were considered married, and if she didn’t, he would try on another night.  No formal ceremony was performed, but presents were exchanged by the families.

When a woman was expecting a baby, her husband could not stay with her. He had to spend his time hunting and traveling. Every morning the woman was to take a cold bath. She could not go into the woods because they believed that seeing a snake was a bad sign for the newborn.      There was a special lodge where the mother would be helped during the birth by other women of the tribe.  From the time he or she was born until the baby could walk, it was always with its mother even while she worked, strapped snugly to its cradleboard.

Indian children had to play with objects provided by Mother Nature, such as logs, poles, branches, bark, vines, corncobs, fruit pits, stones, feathers, and rawhide.  Since corn was a diet staple, corncobs were plentiful and used for many things besides the well-known corncob dolls.  Indian children fashioned a dart out of dried corncobs by inserting chicken feathers into the small end.

     These darts made a safe missile that could be thrown for accuracy and distance through hoops on the ground or hoops hanging from trees.
     Hunting and stalking games were also common, along with games to test strength, balance and speed.  Pole pushing was an individual tug of war used to develop strong arms and shoulder muscles.  A sturdy branch with a piece of rawhide marking the center was used.  A line was drawn in the dirt between the two players, and on a signal, each player tried to pull his opponent across the line by pulling the pole toward himself hand over hand.
 

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